Abandoned Well Methane Gas Leak in Hawthorne, California

Abandoned Water Well Methane Gas Leak Near Capped Oil Wells

Black Dots are Abandoned Oil Wells From Doggr Database 

Crews Monday capped a well leaking methane gas in the South Bay that has forced dozens of residents out of their homes.  The oil industry calls this a "blow out".

Golden State Water workers were capping the well, located on Imperial Highway in Hawthorne, last Thursday when they suddenly experienced an unexpected outflow of water mixed with the gas, the company said.

Nearly 40 families in the area surrounding the well have been evacuated and put up at local hotels due to the gas’ high flammability. “When are we gonna be back? How safe is it? It’s scary because I have a 2-year-old,” one resident said.

The Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway between Crenshaw Boulevard and the San Diego (405) Freeway as well as the transition roads from the 405 to the eastbound 105 were shut down for a short time, according to the California Highway Patrol. All roads were reopened by 11:20 a.m.

 Fire officials said the colorless and odorless gas also has the potential so ignite flash fires. 

The water stopped spouting around 11 a.m. after crews pumped mud into the well.

It will eventually be covered with concrete. It was unclear when families would be allowed to return to their homes.  

Methane Alarm Playa Vista

No one in the South Bay wants to have Methane alarms attached to the homes.  This would be the sad reality if we started drilling for oil again in the South Bay.

Related Articles:
Over a 30 Year Period 50% of Well Casings Fail
Mira Costa High School Plugged Oil Wells at Risk of an Explosion
Slant Oil Drilling Cannot Be Done Safely Near Abandoned Oil Wells
Capped Oil Wells Beneath Homes & Ocean Can Blowout

Over a 30 Year Period 50% of Well Casings Fail

Over a 30 year period 50% of oil well casings fail. How is E&B Natural Resources and the EIR firm going to investigate the 1000 abandoned wells under homes in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach within a 5 mile radius? The E&B project is dead on arrival based on these facts alone. Blowouts and methane explosions under homes cannot be mitigated if they become pressurized.  Orphaned or abandoned oil wells nearby under homes in the South Bay can be a huge safety hazard.

Why Are Home Prices Dropping in Hermosa Beach?

Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Condo Townhomes Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach & El Segundo 

Single Family Home Average Price Per Sale & Sold 

(Click Image to Enlarge)

E&B has been making their rounds presenting to local real estate groups over the past week about the economic benefits of oil drilling in our Beach town. They will spew a truck load of BS and have already costs Hermosa Beach property owners about approximately $343M in aggregate real estate wealth in the first 15 months of being in town.  Here is the math = (7000 parcels x $980,000 avg. per parcel) -5% decrease to be conservative. The last 12 months have seen a sharp spike in home prices everywhere in the South Bay but Hermosa Beach.

Unfortunately, the Stop of Hermosa Beach group has not been invited to present the other side of the oil story. If you ask anyone from E&B if slant hydraulic oil drilling can be done safely near the thousands of abandoned wells in the South Bay, E&B will lie and refer to studies or experts. However, ask any other experienced oil executive and they will tell you that E&B is nuts to hydraulic drill with capped wells under homes nearby.

Slant hydraulic drilling cannot be done safely with abandoned wells under homes and schools. Ask E&B if they plan to cover abandoned wells in the EIR? It won't because Marine Research has no experience with with their failed EIR's for Whittier Hills and Baldwin Hills. If they cover how to mitigate an abandoned well becoming pressurized in the EIR it will kill the whole project and E&B knows this. This is also a fact!  

Slant Oil Drilling Cannot Be Done Safely Near Abandoned Oil Wells Under Homes & Schools

The Biggest Failure of Marine Research's EIR for Whittier Hills

Mira Costa High School Abandoned Oil Wells

Abandoned Oil Wells Can Blowout Under Homes
See Doggr

Marine Research EIR consultant (hired by Hermosa Beach City Council for $800,000) failed to analyze the safety impact of slant drilling near abandoned wells in the EIR for Whittier Hills. (see video below) There is little chance that E&B will acknowledge the abandoned wells in Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach or Manhattan Beach either.  Experts in the oil industry say the integrity of these capped or plugged wells under homes can only be trusted for around 30 years.  Many of these wells were capped 40+ years ago.  There is no way for E&B to mitigate the risk of an abandoned well blowout under a home, in the ocean or near a school. This is a massive issue for South Bay and urge you to watch this video and send it to your friends.  

This 1 of the 6 "Myths of the Whittier Hills Main Field Oil Project". . The Video Comments presented to the Whittier City Council Meeting by Open Space Legal Defense Fund. The EIR was done by Marine Research which failed to address these problems.  Marine Research is also doing the EIR for Hermosa Beach.

Read this news article: Whittier Hills oil project stopped by a Superior Court Judge last week. You won't read in the article but the Marine Research EIR failed in court say my sources in Whittier Hills.

90% of all Oil & Gas Wells are Fracked

Response to:  Easy Reader Opinion Letter "On Local Government: Regarding Fracking"

Fracking is the process by which drillers inject millions of gallons of water, sand, salts, mud and chemicals—all too often toxic chemicals and human carcinogens such as benzene—into the ground at extremely high pressure, to fracture the rock and extract the raw fuel.  Its hard NOT to find a well in Southern California that has NOT been fracked in the last 60 years because the unregulated process has been going on for a long time.  How are we to ever know if this is what has caused the thousands of earthquakes the Midwest is now experiencing?

The fracking process is used to boost production at 90% of all oil and gas wells in the United States, according to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, and fracking is increasingly common in other countries as well.  Although fracking most often occurs when a well is new, companies fracture many wells repeatedly in an effort to extract as much valuable oil or natural gas as possible and to maximize the return on their investment in a profitable site.

The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC), is a United States organization that represents the governors of 30 member and eight associate states, and works to ensure the nation's oil and natural gas resources are conserved and utilized to their maximum potential while protecting health, safety and the environment. It was established by the charter member states' governors in 1935. The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission is the oldest and largest interstate compact in the nation.

Fracking poses serious dangers to both human health and the environment. The three biggest problems with fracking are:

1. Fracking is causing earthquakes in Midwest
2. Fracking can cause adjacent older plugged wells to explode. 
3. Fracking leaves behind a toxic sludge that companies and communities must find some way to manage. Safely disposing of the sludge created by fracking is an ongoing challenge.
4. Somewhere between 20 percent and 40 percent of the toxic chemicals used in the fracking process remain stranded underground where they can, and often do, contaminate drinking water, soil and other parts of the environment that support plant, animal and human life.
5. Methane from fracture wells can leak into groundwater, creating a serious risk of explosion and contaminating drinking water supplies so severely that some homeowners have been able to set fire to the mixture of water and gas coming out of their faucets.

In 2005, President George W. Bush exempted oil and gas companies from federal regulations designed to protect U.S. drinking water, and most state oil and gas regulatory agencies don’t require companies to report the volumes or names of the chemicals they use in the fracking process, chemicals such as benzene, chloride, toluene and sulfates.

The result, according to the nonprofit Oil and Gas Accountability Project, is that one of the nation's dirtiest industries is also one of its least regulated, and enjoys an exclusive right to "inject toxic fluids directly into good quality groundwater without oversight."

In May 2012 the California Senate defeated a bill, introduced by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), requiring drillers to notify local property owners and water authorities in advance that hydraulic fracturing was going to occur, and requiring the testing of groundwater before and after the hydraulic fracturing to determine whether contamination had occurred. Pavley said that this monitoring and reporting approach would help to address citizens' concerns. The state Senate defeated the bill in a bipartisan 18-17 vote.

Mira Costa High School Plugged Oil Wells at Risk of an Explosion

Maps from California Doggr Database

Capped or plugged oil wells can blowout and be a real danger in the South Bay if oil drilling is permitted in Hermosa Beach. Pat Aust of the Redondo Beach City Councilman and former firefighter knows first hand of the dangers of dealing with capped wells. Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach and Redondo beach have hundreds several capped wells that could be at risk of a blowout or explosion.  Below is an explanation to help you understand the potential threat to our community if slant hydraulic pressurized oil drilling is permitted underground and an adjacent well is pressurized.

Oil drilling blowout preventers (BOPs) can be used on the drilling site itself on the surface to mitigate risk. However, blowout preventers CANNOT be used on capped wells when the adjacent reservoir becomes pressurized.  If an adjacent capped oil well were to blowout you could easily have a methane explosion and you wouldn't know about it until its too late.

Most capped wells are buried 30 feet below the surface and were completed usually 30 to 40 years ago.  A hole still exists to a reservoir underneath the ground several thousand feet.  We don't know the condition of these capped wells or reservoirs because there are very limited records and these wells have been capped and buried for several decades.  That does not mean that these wells aren't building pressure underneath the surface.  E&B proposes slant oil drilling and it has no control over pressurizing adjacent wells.  Huge, huge risk of health and safety.   

10 Reasons to Vote Yes for Measure A

10 Reasons to Oppose AES Redondo Beach Power Plant Rebuild 

1. Emissions from the new power plant would increase 700%. 
2. 6,850 students go to school within 1.5 miles of it. 
3. AES management has a horrendous track record and has been involved in several law suits and financial crisis issues including Enron.  Read this "AES Corporation: Rewriting the Rules of Management". 
4. AES's largest customer is J.P. Morgan according to the AES company fact sheet on the web site.  A bank as your largest customer?  Sounds a bit like Enron to me.  This Redondo Beach power from this plant is not needed per the CAISO and CEC reports.
5. Power plant lines bring down property values at least 25% in the Redondo Beach & South Hermosa Beach areas and block ocean views.  The power lines may go as well. This has not been studied. 
6. AES hurts the fiscal health of the Redondo King Harbor area surrounding businesses.  New waterfront developments have been put on hold because of the power plant rebuild issue.  Many new restaurants would likely follow the new Shade Hotel being built on King Harbor more money would flow to the City if the power plant was gone.  
7. Opposing it costs nothing & AES only needs the Council and others to do nothing and we all lose.  Doing nothing plays right into their hands. This is not about the future zoning of the site.  We definitely don't want a new power plant.  See map below of what this area could be. 
8. AES pays little in taxes only $385,000 / year in tax revenue to the city. 
9. AES plant borders on South Hermosa Beach and most HB residents will be affected. 
10. The loud steam blasts in the middle of the night are simply ridiculous and this beautiful park rendering (see picture below)  done by the California Coast Commission would be incredible the area. 

In a 3-2 vote, the Redondo Beach City Council decided to continue its discussion on a resolution opposing the repowering of AES Redondo Beach at the July 10 meeting. After a meeting that lasted more than seven hours until 1 am, the Redondo Beach City Council decided to delay its discussion on whether to pass a resolution opposing the repowering of the AES Redondo Beach power plant on Harbor Drive until the July 10. This will allow city staff time to hire an independent consultant to perform an amortization report on the current structure. Councilmen Matt Kilroy and Pat Aust both said they wanted to read such a report before making a final decision.  Is this just a delay tactic?  Read more on Redondo Patch and Easy Reader. 

Redondo Beach City Council 

Matt Kilory, Steve Aspel, Bill Brand, Pat Aust, Steve Diels

Hermosa Beach, Torrance, Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes should participate as well in support of removing the power plant. NIMBY thinking and waiting is just plain lazy and stupid.  All surrounding City Council members need to work together because this is such a big issue.  Lets set politics aside and be proactive about finding a solution to do the right thing.  This is not just about Redondo Beach and we all stand to benefit with cleaner air and potentially new development that we all can use. The King Harbor area has so much potential. Its a developers "wet dream" and huge private money would follow the opportunity to create something amazing.  

It Redondo Beach City Council's job to find an alternative solution for the power plant land.  However, we all know political people are lazy and always need LOTS of "hand holding" so they feel safe. Why would City Council members be reluctant to oppose the new power plant remodel that produces a minuscule $200,000 in tax revenue per year which is less money than the city makes from its parking garage at the pier. 

Is AES threatening Redondo Beach City Council members with a law suit?  Any initiative by the city residents is not likely to provide AES with any basis to sue the city. Finally, there is an amortization process through which a city, or a citizen's initiative, can allow businesses adequate time to get a return on their investment in a property before a specific use is banned. The proposed citizen initiative would eliminate industrial uses by 2020, which I think is plenty of time (8 years) for AES to get adequate return on their investment in the property, especially considering the majority of the equipment is old and obsolete, and esentially worthless at this point.  

AES is no stranger to crisis and law suits.  In 1992, AES flirted with disaster when its Shady Point generating facility in Oklahoma was discovered to have been discharging polluted water and to have falsified the samples it provided to the Environmental Protection Agency. In the same year, AES was forced to abandon its rebuilding of a power plant at Cedar Bay, Florida following a dispute with state officials and the local community. These events caused AES’s share price to fall by half.  AES has multiple law suits against the company (see AES Law Suits) search results.  

AES is a $9 billion public company (NYSE: AES) planning to make a $500M+ investment on a power plant that might be worth an estimated $135M (comps based on AES Huntington Beach valuation performed in 2011). AES is looking to repower the plant in 2018. They are currently using the plant only 5% of the time right now, and with an investment of $630 million for a new plant, the amount of energy needed to pay back the investment will mean lots of particulate matter in the atmosphere in Redondo, Hermosa, and surrounding communities. While the footprint will be smaller (12 acres vs the current 50 acres, 4 stacks instead of 5), any chance for revitalizing the waterfront will be lost for 50+ years as no one will want to invest in the area. Here are some points and a link to FAQs Tear Down Redondo Beach Power Plant Blog:

California Coastal Commission's study for AES power plant area

Capped Oil Wells Beneath Homes & Ocean Can Blowout

Capped Oil Wells That Could Blowout in Redondo Beach & Hermosa Beach

Capped oil wells are a real danger in the South Bay.  Pat Aust the Redondo Beach City Councilman and former firefighter knows first hand of the dangers.  Hermosa Beach has a handful of capped wells and some are out in the Ocean as you can see.  However, Redondo Beach has hundreds of them underneath homes and Manhattan Beach has plugged oil wells at Mira Costa High School.  Here is an explanation to help you understand the potential threat to our community if slant hydraulic pressurized oil drilling is permitted underground.

Oil drilling blowout preventers (BOPs) can be used on the drilling site itself on the surface to mitigate risk.  However, blowout preventers CANNOT be used on capped wells or adjacent wells underground & in the Ocean.   If an adjacent capped oil well were to blow on the ocean seabed it would cause a massive oil spill and mess on up and down the coast.  The ocena seabed well could be capped but would required significant emergency effort (like the BP Spill in the Gulf) and would change the integrity of life in the South Bay as we know it.  If an adjacent capped oil were to blow underground beneath homes.  Lives and homes could be lost because an explosion is highly likely.  Residents in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach who own homes over a capped underground well would never know about the problem until it is too late.  Do we really want to trust the that the integrity of the well was capped properly 30 or 40 years ago?

Crude oil is a flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Because hydrocarbons and gas are lighter than rock or water, they often migrate upward through adjacent rock layers until either reaching the surface or becoming trapped within porous rocks (known as reservoirs) by impermeable rocks above. However, the process is influenced by underground water flows, causing oil to migrate hundreds of kilometres horizontally or even short distances downward before becoming trapped in a reservoir. When hydrocarbons are concentrated in a trap, an oil field forms, from which the liquid can be extracted by drilling and pumping at high pressure. The down hole pressures experienced at the rock structures change depending upon the depth and the characteristic of the source rock.  The deeper the well the more risky the operation.  E&B is proposing deep wells.

Blowouts happen all the time and are daily occurrence in the oil industry.  Don't convince yourself it can't happen here because Steve Layton knows too well from his Blowout in Louisiana which bankrupted Equinox Oil.

Here is another conclusion that supports this argument from the Coastal Commission.

Fracking in California Can Induce More Earthquakes

Josh Fox of Gas Land Movie reveals unregulated fracking going on in Los Angeles, California and could cause a major earthquakes in the near future.  The USGS is studying the relationship to fracking but regulation still seems a long ways off.  Oil and gas companies are not required to disclose fracking even though hundreds of wells in Southern Califoria have and are currently being fracked.

In Oklahoma , Arkansas, and in Ohio, earthquakes shake the ground and rattle nerves. But these quakes are not the work of mother nature. The USGS says a controversial oil production method called "fracking" is responsible for triggering them

Fracking is a drilling method where highly pressurized water, sand, and a cocktail of chemicals are injected miles into the ground to shatter the rock, which allows the oil and gas to escape. A critical part of this process is getting rid of millions of gallons of waste water. A common way to do that is to re-inject it back into the earth. And that's what can trigger an earthquake. E&B will tell you they are not doing the controversial "hydraulic fracking" but won't be specific on how their technique differs from the above.  Do we want to take this risk?  

What Is Horizontal Shale Oil Drilling?

What E&B Natural Resources Doesn't Want You to Know

Here are the safety issues and risks of Slant Oil Drilling in Hermosa Beach that E&B Natural Resources doesn't want you to know.

1)  Chemicals and mud are pumped into the ground
2)  More black tar and oil on our beaches 

3)  Hole is drilled just under the deepest fresh water source from the surface. 

4)  Cement sealing always fail and thus why fracking contaminates water underground

5)  Drilling will go completely horizontal only under the Ocean. (1/4 mile)

6)  80 pieces of pipes at 495 pounds each to drill one well (2400 total pipes for 30)

7)  87 tons of pipe per well will be inserted into ground (2,610 tons of pipe for 30)

8)  Perforation gun inserted into ground for an explosions underground

9)  Hydraulic fracturing has huge safety issues under pressure

10)  Pump jacks may not be used so what will they be using?

Steve Layton says, "The best place to find oil is in an old oil field." = Fracking

Oil Companies Do NOT have to Disclose Fracking Sites in CA

Fracking is Still Highly Unregulated in California
See the Fracking Health Dangers of Gas Here


Baldwin Hills Oil Sink Hole in 1963 See (6 min 25 seconds)
Pressurized Oil Extraction Wells Caused This

Hydraulic Fracking Diagram

California Fracking Unregulated

E&B Oil Reveals Hydraulic Pumping Will Be Used

E&B further explains their hydraulic fracking technique using 27 oil wells and 3 water injection wells. The drilling rig will be 87 feet tall and will be temporarily on site for four months before it is removed. During that four month period three exploratory wells and one water injection well will be drilled. This will allow us to analyze the quality, along with the rate and flow, and other important factors of the produced oil, gas and water.

Pressurized Hydraulic Oil Extraction Wells Caused This
Redondo Beach Wins $2.5M Law Suit From Oil Companies in 1997

Eight oil companies named in the lawsuit were required to replace the oil they had taken with pressurized water. He said that because they did not, the surface under the water sank up to four feet in some areas. The subsidence led the breakwater to sink four feet below its designed height of 22 feet, Goddard said, and caused storm-generated waves to crash over the protective wall. He said the storm caused more than $8 million in damage to local businesses, a cost absorbed by the city. Several major oil companies were named in the suit, including Texaco, Exxon, Trident and Phillips Petroleum, Goddard said. 

Dangers to Hermosa Beach Residents if Oil Drilling is Permitted

Toxic Pollutants Released During Oil & Gas Drilling

Here are just some of the risks sited by the California Coastal Commission in 1992 for the proposed Macpherson slant oil drilling project that was blocked by a resident revolt.  Read the summary of the seven major risks addressed by the full California Coastal Commission detailed report.  Its important to note that none of these issues can be fully mitigated by new technology as E&B Oil will likely claim.  There are other risks associated with the project. 

E&B Natural Resources Sign at Site in Long Beach

#1)  This is an actual sign from E&B's drilling site in Long Beach, CA.  The previous applicant (Macpherson Oil) proposes to locate a hazardous oil and gas industrial development in a fully developed urban area with nearby residences.  Commission staff did not believe the applicant  had fully analyzed the potential worst-case accidental release of hydrogen sulfide (see Wikipedia definition) that might occur. In addition, some nearby wells have historically produced significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide. As a result, the applicant agreed to fund an independent, third party review of its hazard risk analysis. The consultant, Arthur D. Little, Inc., working under the direction of Commission staff, determined that hydrogen sulfide, an acutely toxic gas, could be encountered during drilling and/or production and could pose a significant safety risk to offsite populations. Hydrogen sulfide is lethal within a few breaths at concentrations of 1,000 parts per million (ppm), and kills within ½-hour at concentrations of 300 ppm. Injuries may occur at lower concentrations and occupational safety standards are triggered at 10 ppm.  

#2) The project poses a risk of fire and explosion. 

#3) Methane Gas Leaks & Explosions - Cause of BP Oil Spill

#4)  Withdrawal of reservoir fluids and associated changes in reservoir pressures may lead to subsidence. Subsidence of the nearshore area could lead to changes in beach profiles and result in loss of sandy beach. Subsidence can also cause increase seismic activity. 

#5) Re-injection of produced fluids poses a remote risk of increased earthquake activity.

#6)  Project-related operations could result in an accidental oil spill from the production facility/drilling site (a maximum 2,800-barrel spill), a tanker truck (a maximum 175-barrel spill), and/or a pipeline (a maximum 141-barrel spill).

#7)  I think this signs from E&B Oil explains our spilling concerns. 

#8) Reduction of clean air to breath.  Don't believe the lies that it won't stink.  

#9)  Drilling and well work-over activities require a  75 to 135-foot tall drilling rig which (a) contrasts sharply with existing neighborhood building heights, (b) will be somewhat visible from several coastal public viewing areas, and (c) isincompatible with the low-profile visual character of this beach community.  Apparently E&B Natural Resources will be proposing a smaller drilling rig. 

#10)  The applicant proposes to remove 12 parking spaces, six of which are Public Access currently available to the public on weekends for beach access.

How is Fracking Different from Oil Drilling?

How is hydraulic fracturing different from drilling for oil? And why is it called 'fracking'? CNN explains it to you.  CNN Explains.

The Environmental Protection Agency's new air pollution rules for the oil and gas industry may seem like odd timing, as President Obama has been trying to deflect Republican criticism that he overregulates energy industries. But the rules weren't the Obama administration's idea.  How a 'Western Problem' Led to New Drilling Rules.

Listen to this when you consider that E&B Oil wants to drill 30 wells in Hermosa Beach.  30 wells getting well completion in our neighborhood would horrendous.  The EPA has proposed new rules to control the problem but does this apply to slant oil drilling?

The fact that the EPA has acknowledged drilling is making people sick is a strong argument against doing so in the midst of a residential neighborhood, like Hermosa Beach. "The EPA says all of that drilling sends significant amounts of pollution into the air, contributing to smog and making people sick."